There has been a recent resurgence of interest in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) having an airplane-type configuration and/or a rotor-type configuration for performing a variety of aerial missions where the use of manned flight vehicles is not deemed appropriate, for whatever reason. Such aerial missions include surveillance, reconnaissance, target acquisition and/or designation, data acquisition, communications datalinking, decoy, jamming, harassment, or one-way supply flights. More recently, the suitability and/or capabilities of rotor-type UAVs for ground surveillance missions is being explored.
There are numerous ground surveillance missions where the particular capabilities of rotor-type UAVs make such vehicles particularly well suited for the mission. For example, the VTOL capability of rotor-type UAVs makes them particularly well suited for use where the ground surveillance site is remote, hazardous, and/or inaccessible by other means. In many instances, the requirements of the ground surveillance mission makes the use of a fixed sensor system, e.g., video, acoustic, motion detection, impractical. Further, many type of ground surveillance missions are beyond the practical capabilities of a human observer, e.g., missions that are inherently hazardous or that require surveillance at multiple sites over a short time span.
Some of the various types of ground surveillance missions for which VTOL UAVs are particularly advantageous include border patrol surveillance, news coverage, disaster monitoring, police stakeouts, enviromnental protection monitoring, and geologic/seismic surveillance and/or monitoring. For border patrol surveillance, the VTOL UAV can be remotely piloted to potential border crossing sites where the UAV is landed and shutdown. A sensor package may be automatically and/or remotely operated for covert surveillance of the potential crossing site. Depending upon the particular mission conditions, the sensor package may be configured to provide a multi-spectral surveillance capability. Sensor data can be datalimked to a remote observation facility for real-time assessment and response. For news coverage, a VTOL UAV may be particularly advantageous since the aerial and VTOL capabilities thereof may provide the most expeditious, or even the only practical, means of accessing the ground news site. The VTOL UAV is dispatched to the news site where it is landed, and the sensor package activated to broadcast and/or record video and/or audio footage of the news event. The VTOL UAV has the capability to be readily repositioned for better camera angles, or relocated to another news site upon command. Video and/or audio coverage of widely separated news sites may be readily obtained using a single VTOL UAV without the requirement for numerous fihn crews or transport equipment.
A VTOL UAV may be deployed to remotely monitor disaster sites such as flooding rivers or crumbling bridges/highways/buildings. The VTOL UAV can be remotely landed at disaster sites of interest, and the sensor package activated to provide sensor data to assess the extent of the disaster, to provide an early warning of an exacerbation of the disaster conditions, and/or to survey for possible victims. Once a disaster site has been assessed by means of remotely transmitted data provided by the sensor package, the VTOL UAV may be relocated to another disaster site to provide further disaster data. For police work, a VTOL vehicle may be dispatched to potential/actual crime sites, e.g., stakeouts, crimes in progress, and the sensor package activated to provide covert sensor data of the event. The use of a VTOL UAV for crime site surveillance or monitoring eliminates the need to exposed law enforcement personnel to the inherent dangers of the crime site. A VTOL UAV may be expeditiously deployed to toxic accident sites to provide relevant sensor data, e.g., video, chemical detectors, to allow remote assessment of the extent of damage and/or to formulate a containment/cleanup campaign. The use of a VTOL UAV eliminates the health risks associated with the use of human personnel for such duties. A VTOL UAV may also be utilized to monitor remote sites for illegal dumping of toxic wastes. Volcano sites may be remotely monitored using a VTOL UAV, or the seismic activity along remote fault lines may be monitored. A VTOL UAV may be utilized for seismic mapping in remote, inaccessible areas.
In addition to the utility of VTOL UAVs for the exemplary civilian ground surveillance missions of the types described in the preceding paragraphs, a VTOL UAV also has potential military applications. While matured aerial assets may be utilized for such missions, such applications may be of low priority, and therefore aerial assets may not always be available for such applications. VTOL UAVs, in contrast, may be dedicated for use in low priority military applications. For example, VTOL UAVs may be utilized for missions such as sentry duty or remote reconnaissance missions which may be low priority applications in the overall context of a warfare scenario. In addition, the use of VTOL UAVs eliminates the risk of harm to military personnel, and in many instances, e.g., remote reconnaissance, provides a more expeditious means of accomplishing the mission.
A need exists for a VTOL UAV having the capability to perform remote ground surveillance and/or monitoring missions. The VTOL UAV should be capable of remote pilotage and remote UAV shutdowns/startups to extend mission time and enhance coverness where required. The VTOL UAV should have the capability to accommodate a multi-sensor mission package that may be configured to provide an allweather, multi-spectral surveillance/monitoring capability. The sensor mission package of the VTOL UAV should be configured to provide sensor data that is readily assimilated by personnel at the remote command/control (RCC) facility. The VTOL UAV sensor package should be capable of being readily reconfigured to facilitate the stowage and transportability of the VTOL UAV. The VTOL UAV should be configured to provide the capability of remotely landing the UAV at unprepared ground surveillance sites, and to accommodate diverse types of terrain. The VTOL UAV should have the capability to provide remote landing site assessment data. Further, the VTOL should have the capability to transmit sensor data in real time to the RCC facility.